Month: November 2019

I have been reading Charles Foster’s blog Smyth, Fletcher, Iwerne, and the theology of the divided self from Surviving Church.org. The article is available here.

It has set me thinking about the way people can be faithful to wrong theology and how this can be a source of evil in the church. Foster tells of his experiences and indoctrination into a particular theology for young men from elite backgrounds and how this was warped into abuse.

It reminded me of the Biblical story of Jephthah, told in Judges chapter 11. The way this is usually preached is that Jephthah was a great and faithful man of God. He made a promise to God that if God gave him victory in battle then Jephthah would sacrifice ‘whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.’ NIV translation. When he returned the first person to greet him was his only child, his daughter. Jephthah was faithful to his promise to the Lord and he eventually sacrificed his daughter to the Lord. Therefore, we are told, we should be faithful, no matter how high the cost, just like Jephthah.

Very rarely have I heard that story preached for what it actually was – the cold-blooded murder of a child. Even though there are clear prohibitions against child sacrifice, for example in Deuteronomy chapter 12 or Leviticus 18.

God did not tell Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter, God did not ask him for any promise in return for victory against the Ammonites. God freely gave victory to his people. Jephthah may have sincerely believed that he was being faithful to God in sacrificing his daughter, but he was doing something that had no mandate from God. This was something that was forbidden in the ten commandments, given in Exodus 20.13.

Yet nobody in his society tried to stop him. Why? Was it because he was a powerful leader and was beyond challenge? Was it because she was a daughter, and after all women were the property of their father until they became the property of their husband?

Many times I have heard this story linked with the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, as told in Genesis chapter 22. Jephthah, like Abraham, is portrayed as a man of great faith, willing to sacrifice his only child for the Lord. But there are two very big differences in their stories. First, God told Abraham to do this, so he was being obedient to what God actually said, it was not a promise he had simply made himself. Secondly, the child did not die, God provided a ram to be the sacrifice instead. No child murder here, just faithful obedience and a willingness to give everything for God.

Evil can flourish where it is not challenged. How many powerful people of God are following their own agendas, believing themselves to be faithful? How can the people of God hold up a mirror to their activities and say ‘no, this is not being faithful to God, it is child murder’? Where there is power, there will be abuses of power, even if those are seen to be having a good reason.

This is the heart of the problem, where faithful Christians are trusting their leaders to do what is right but judge the intentions and reasons or even the faithful integrity of the person rather than holding those leaders to account for what they are actually doing.

The Church for Everyone conference took place at St James and Emmanuel Church in Didsbury Manchester, hosted by their vicar Rev Nick Bundock. As part of the day Jayne Ozanne ran a workshop entitled ‘How to recognise and safeguard against spiritual abuse’.

She started with an overview of Church of England policy documents, starting with the 2006 report ‘Promoting a Safe Church’, which was the first official mention of spiritual abuse (on page 39 in appendix 2). In the 2011 ‘Responding well to those who have been sexually abused’, the Church of England used the government’s list of 4 types of abuse – physical, sexual, emotional and neglect.

In 2017, the ‘Responding well to Domestic Abuse’ report recognised additional categories including spiritual abuse. This report was about domestic violence, but appendix 3 was about theology and showed how theology could be misused to cause harm. This appendix is well worth reading and the report can be downloaded from here.

In 2018 there was the first case of a CDM (clergy discipline measure) for spiritual abuse.

The Methodists issued reports in 2010 and 2015 ‘Safeguarding adults’. The Roman Catholics do not appear to have official policies on spiritual abuse. Spiritual abuse is mentioned on the Baptists’ website, but it is not defined.

The ground-breaking academic textbook on the subject is Breaking the Silence of Spiritual Abuse by Lisa Oakley and Kathryn Kinmond
Available to buy here.

The latest book by Lisa Oakley and Justin Humphreys is Escaping the Maze of Spiritual Abuse: Creating Healthy Christian Cultures.

Recently the organisation thirtyone:eight (formerly CCPAS) published their research paper entitled ‘Spiritual Abuse’, which can be downloaded here.
It defined spiritual abuse as:

‘Spiritual abuse is a form of emotional and psychological abuse. It is characterised by a systematic pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour in a religious context. Spiritual abuse can have a deeply damaging impact on those who experience it. However, holding a theological position is not in itself inherently spiritually abusive, but misuse of scripture, applied theology and doctrine is often a component of spiritually abusive behaviour.’

The presenting factors in spiritual abuse are fear (of not being good enough, being wrong, being excluded, afraid to speak out) and shame (who you are, what you have done). This can lead to self hate and for some to internalised homophobia.

There needs to be greater accountability in the church to whistle blow and to report abuse. There also needs to be greater training on how to respond to reports of abuse, For example, it is not a good idea to just go to the parent / church or have a chat over a cup of tea with someone accused of abuse, it must be reported to the safeguarding officer.
Effective safeguarding needs:
• Empowerment
• Supervision
• Support
• Training
• Awareness.
We also have to be aware of the current culture about a ‘clash of rights’, if we are to reduce and eliminate abuse. God’s love is not harmful.